More than 20,000 Saudi women apply for industrial jobs

RIYADH: An estimated 20,195 Saudi women have submitted their CVs to the private sector to apply for jobs in the industrial sector, the Dammam-based Al-Sharq reported Friday quoting official statistics issued by the Ministry of Labor.
About 8.8 percent of the employed Saudi women work at the referral industries, the statistics added.
A source at the Labor Ministry said the Human Resources Development Fund (HADAF) will finance the training of Saudi women wishing to join the industrial sector by about 75 percent while the business
owners must bear about 25 percent of the cost of their
training.
The source pointed out that the fund will also bear about 50 percent of the salaries paid to women within the range of SR 2000.
“The subsidies paid by the fund will consist of a year of training and two years of actual employment,” he added.
He said the support, provided by HADAF, will continue for three years after the women have actually got jobs in the industrial sector and asked the industrialists to employ Saudi women in places that will preserve
their specialty.
The source considered the factory set up in Riyadh to produce military uniforms women is the beginning of the Saudi women joining the industrial sector.
“The work of women in factories will either be administrative or in the production lines,” he explained.
The source made it clear that the training of Saudi women was not obligatory of industrialists. “It is an optional issue especially that some factories, such as drug establishments, will need long training,” he said.
The Saudi Industrial Property Authority (MODON) has recently unveiled plans to begin building women-only industrial cities all over the Kingdom.